Hello everyone! EdAWACSdenyY here! and today I'm going to be talking to you about the Iosef Stalin 7 or IS-7. This is one of the Soviet Tier 10 Heavy tanks and one of the original "Big Three" Tier 10 tanks in World of Tanks PC. This is an absolute Soviet powerhouse and regarded by some as the most beautiful Soviet heavy in the game. Let's dismantle this tank under our scope shall we laddies?

Background History:

Design and development of the IS-7 heavy tank started in the spring of 1945 as the Russians started to regain all their lost territory from German occupation. Soviet tank designers were able to settle back into their old workplaces throughout the USSR. Several of these tank designers were returned to Experimental Plant #100 where new Soviet tank prototypes were tested. The leadership of this team of tank designers was assigned to J. Kotin. Under his command, the team began work upon a new heavily armored and well armed Soviet heavy tank which went by the prototype designation: "Object 260" whose later prototypes would be given the name "IS-7".

For those of you wondering, the Object 260 is in the PC version of World of Tanks as a Tier 10 Soviet heavy tank. You are rewarded with the Object 260 after you have successfully completed the 4th set of personal missions. This in game version is armed with a better version of the IS-4's top gun with better firepower and default APCR ammunition while having the frontal hull armor of the IS-7 but with a slightly harder to aim for lower plate. However, the Object 260's turret can be more easily penetrated with the lower part of the turret front being a shot trap and the upper roof being easily over matched and the tank has no additional side protection the IS-7 has.

Object 260. Notice the slot hole design of the muzzle brake on the gun.

But enough with that prattle, we still have much more history to go through!

This new Soviet heavy tank would incorporate many innovative features already present on Soviet heavy tanks in service at the time. For instance, the IS-7's thick upper glacis plates were placed at acute angles forming a pike like shape, similar to that of the IS-3 heavy tank but more heavily sloped. The frontal turret face was also very well sloped to improve chances of shell deflection. The Object 260's mass during the course of it's development had reached a heavy 68 tonnes and therefore the issues regarding the tank's mobility had to be addressed. With such a heavy weight, the capabilities of the tank's power plant also had to be increased as well.

The original proposal for the first IS-7 prototype was for it to be powered by 2 V-11 or B-16 diesel engines capable of delivering a total of 1200 horsepower which drove electric motors coupled to the drive sprockets. This form of diesel-electric drive had been tested before on another prototype Soviet tank, the Object 253 (better known to you and me as the IS-6) which had it's drive-train reverse-engineered from the German Ferdinand Tank Destroyer. However, this design was canceled and only a wooden mock-up was ever constructed of the IS-7 first prototype.

IS-7 First Prototype under the designation: "Object 260"

In the 1946, construction of a second prototype of the IS-7 commenced with 2 prototypes being ordered that same year. This IS-7 was different than the first prototype. Since the original diesel-electric drive failed, the designers decided to use standard mechanical transmission instead. They tested using 2 different engines for the second prototype. The first engine tested was the TD-30 diesel engine which was modified from an ACh-300 aircraft engine however this engine during testing was found to have several drawbacks and thus was rejected.

The second engine was a 12-cylinder M-50 diesel engine (used by off-shore high speed boats) which generated 1050 horsepower at 1850 revolutions per minute. This engine was characterized by it's large dimensions which required redesign of the 2nd IS-7 prototype in order to accommodate the engine into the chassis. In order to fit the engine inside the tank without having to increase the tank's height, Soviet engineers developed a new shorter torsion bar suspension to provide enough space for the engine crankshaft without increasing the height of the vehicle. As a result, the IS-7 was actually lower than the IS-3 heavy tank (by 24 mm).

The transmission for the tank was designed in two versions. The first, transmission was a 6-speed manual shift with synchronizers while the turning mechanism was a planetary and a two-step. Steering was done via a hydraulic servo.Tests showed good traction transmission quality, ensuring high average speed of the tank. The second version of the manual transmission had been developed in conjunction with the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School. It was also a planetary but with an 8-speed selections. Steering was done by hydraulic actuators with progressive gears. The IS-7 was also the first Soviet tank which had tracks with rubber-metallic hinges, hydraulic double acting shock absorbers, and road wheels with internal shock absorbers operating at high loads and torsion beams.

The first prototype of the IS-7 (still designated as Object 260 at that time) was ready in September 8th of 1946 and the second prototype ready in December of the same year. When tested in the field, the IS-7 was shown to be capable of a blistering 60 km per hour maximum speed in ideal road conditions and could maintain a 32 km per hour speed on rough roads. This was a phenomenal speed for a heavy tank at the time and only the Soviet IS-7 could do it.

During the months of 1947, after long and arduous testing trials on 2 prototypes, a third prototype was produced and it was better in every way to the original 2 prototypes. Now throughout this long and tedious babble from yours truly, (yes yes I know I know you suffered enough through history class, at least your not the person having to type this out!) we have covered mostly issues on this tank that aren't what you came here for, if you wanted to learn about engines and such matters, you would have had better lucky talking to an engineer which sadly I am not. But now we will get to this juicy bits, the armor layout, and the gun.

Like the various differences between prototypes, the guns mounted on each prototype were also slightly different. The first prototype, (the Object 260) was armed with the 130 mm S-26 gun. The gun fired 2 piece ammunition which weighed 33 kg. To make loading of the gun much simpler for the crew, a pneumatic loading mechanism was installed. However the loading system was large and bulky taking up valuable space.

The next version of the IS-7 was armed with the new 130 mm S-70 gun which was probably derived from the same 130 mm naval guns used on Soviet destroyers. The S-70 had a barrel length of 54 calibers (7020 mm) and the shell that it could fire had a mass of 33.4 kg and an initial velocity of 900 m/s with the ability to punch through 163-mm armor, mounted at an angle of 30 °, at a distance of 1000m and 143 mm - 2,000m. The guns rate of fire was from 6 to 8 shots per minute thanks to the naval style "rammer" but that detail isn't confirmed.

The 130 mm S-70 gun carried a total of 30 rounds inside the tank however rather the using the large bulky pneumatic loading system that was on the Object 260, a smaller chain mechanism with the electric drive was developed which served as a sort of automatic loader which still required 2 human loaders to ram the shell into the breech of the gun. The characteristic difference between guns was the muzzle brake design: The S-70 had a "pepper pot" design, and a S-26 has a vertical slot design.

The number of machine guns on the IS-7 was also quite astonishing. This tank had the most mounted machine guns ever fitted to a tank, eight: Two - large caliber, and the rest - 7.62 mm RP-46. A second CPV-44 was added on the roof of the turret for firing at air and ground targets. Additionally two 7.62 mm machine guns and a 14.5mm were mounted in the gun mantlet. All of them could be fired via remote control. Ammunition for the machine guns consisted of: 400 rounds of ammunition for the CPV and 2500 for the ER.

Now regarding the armor, The armor and slope for the hull and turret were increased after firing 88 mm, 122 mm and 128 mm projectiles at the prototypes during tests and evaluating the data gained from those tests. The thickness of the frontal plate was increased to 150 mm, placing them under vertical angles of 50 ° - 52 °. The turret was given a less vulnerable form removing the angled lower portion of the frontal turret armor which was found to produce a shot-trap so it became more smooth and rounded. The thickness of the frontal turret face was adjusted to 240 - 350 mm at an angle of 45 ° - 0 °, the side plates - to 185 - 240 mm at angles of 30 ° - 45 °. Even the most powerful guns existing at that time (128-mm and 130-mm armor-piercing projectiles) failed to penetrate the armor. except for the poorly angled lower glacis plate.

The crew of the IS-7 consisted of 5 people: the driver, seated in the hull, the commander and gunner seated in the front of the turret and 2 loaders situated in the rear of the turret.

During the months of 1948, the fourth and last prototype of the IS-7 was produced. Following the factory testing, all the prototypes were handed over to the state to review and evaluate. One member of the USSR Ministry of Transport Engineering E. Kulchitsky remembered the test trials very clearly where he remembered being astonished by the tank's high mobility and how easy and submissive the tank was for the driver to control with such ease.

During one test trial, one of the 4 prototype IS-7's suddenly caught fire after exceeding the allotted number of test trials. The tank's automatic fire extinguishing system was activated twice but failed to stop the blaze which was consuming the tank. The tank crew had to evacuate and the prototype tank was destroyed. After investigations, it was discovered that the cause of the fire was the plastic fuel tanks which were used to save weight but were revealed to be a major fire hazard.

Despite the IS-7's outstanding performance it failed to receive approval from the State Commission and never underwent mass production. The reason the IS-7 was rejected in the end was mostly that the tank was just far to heavy to be practical. Weighing in at 68 tonnes the tank was simply too heavy to be transported by rail like other tanks and there were few bridges it could cross that could support its weight. So in retrospect, the IS-7 failed not due to it's reliability and capabilities but it simply failed due to it's impracticality in a war which did not require huge steel behemoths but rather more mobile and flexible units which still packed a decent punch.

The advent of the main battle tank with decent armor, excellent mobility and devastating firepower were already grabbing the interests of the Soviet Red Army and the concept of a heavily armored heavy tank seemed distinctly quaint and old fashioned. The days of heavy tanks were doomed to die out. No heavy tank of this size and weight would ever be built again on Russian soil. After the IS-7 the Russians never fielded a tank weighing more than 46 tonnes. The age of heavy tanks are long gone.

Only 4 prototypes of the IS-7 were ever built and out of the 4 only one survives today, and it is the fourth prototype which you can see at the Kubinka tank museum, slumbering away like a tired beast, serving as a testament to Soviet engineering and the ultimate futility of the heavy tank concept.

Now that we have brushed up a bit on the history of this tank, Let's go over it's stats:

This vehicle is elite in stock configuration

Hitpoints: 1900

Speed Limit: 50 km per hour

Hull Traverse Speed: 25 degrees per second

Turret Traverse Speed: 18 degrees per second

Hull armor:

Front: 150 mm

Sides: 150 mm

Rear: 100 mm

Turret armor:

Front: 240 mm

Sides: 185 mm

Rear: 94 mm

Top gun: 130 mm S-70

Standard Shell Penetration:

AP: 260 mm

APCR: 303 mm

HE: 68 mm

Average Damage:

AP: 460

APCR: 460

HE: 600

Rounds per minute: 4.73

Accuracy: 0.40 (at 100 m)

Aim time: 2.9 seconds

Top Engine: M-50T

Horsepower: 1050

Now that we have glanced over the general stats of this tank, Let us review its advantages and disadvantages on the battlefield in great detail:

Advantages:

The Armor: This is the probably one of the biggest reasons you want an IS-7, because of that thick all around sloped armor. The IS-7 is well known for it's thick frontal armor as well as its tricky side armor. Firstly don't let the base armor values fool you. The IS-7's upper glacis is indeed 150 mm thick. But it's the way that they are positioned which makes them so strong. But how? How did the Soviet engineers give the IS-7 such good armor protection without resorting to using 200 mm thick plating like the Germans did with their Maus? The answer to that lies in the arrangement of the armor.

The entire front of the IS-7's hull can be seen to be comprised of three 150 mm thick plates. The upper glacis plates are placed at acute angles of 52 degrees forming at upward pike shape which aligns with the lower glacis as shown in the image above. This "pike nose shape pre-angles the armor vastly increasing the armor's relative thickness. The angling of the armor plating gives the IS-7 a varying degree of effective armor thickness which in some areas can be 305 mm to a whooping 335 mm,

The armor penetration model of an IS-7 when fired upon by the Jadgpanzer E100 with armor-piercing shells at a distance of 500 meters.

Most regular projectiles fired at the tank will simply glance off the pike nose armor and only rounds with penetration values of 340-422 mm can consistently pierce this level of armor. But your lower glacis however is also 150 mm thick but it is less well sloped. This is the frontal weak-spot of an IS-7 and you should be careful of that area when in combat, as even Tier 8 tanks can penetrate it with ease.

The side armor is even trickier and complex than the frontal armor. The slated upper portion of the side armor under the turret is 150 mm thick sloped at a 45 degree angle. However the second layer of vertical armor above the tracks is the tricky layer of the armor. What you see there, that flat side armor, isn't actually the actual hull armor of the tank. It's actually a 30 mm thick side skirt. The armor behind there is, if you were to remove the tracks and spaced armor, very strangely shaped than what you would expect.

This is the side of an IS-7 without the tracks but showing the flat spaced armor.

This is what the hull of the IS-7 really looks like under the spaced armor. The armor underneath the side skirt is only 100 mm thick but it is placed at a 67 degree angle giving it an effective armor thickness of 215 mm. The side-skirt portion of the sides can be extremely trollish and has shattered many hopes and dreams of tankers who shot at it even from a slight angle. This geometric configuration of the side hull will allow you to get the occasional lucky bounce off your sides as you drive across the battle field. When side scraping, the effective armor thickness of your already well sloped side armor becomes invincible and will eat shells for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This spaced armor along your sides will also allow you to mitigate most of the explosive damage from HE shells as well as reduce the effectiveness of HEAT shells. A HEAT shell after it explodes on the 30 mm side-skirt begins to form the jet of white-hot metal which penetrates the armor. However the metallic stream has to pass through the open air before it can reach the main armor. As the jet reaches for the main armor, most of it is dispersed by the open air around it and by the time the HEAT shell has reached the main armor, it would have already completely dispersed and become useless or is too weak to put a dent in the armor.

Remember these factors and use them to your advantage in battle.

Heavily armored turret: The turret of the IS-7 is well known to be incredibly tricky to penetrate. The front of the turret is in some areas can have an effective armor thickness of 400 + mm. This means that the IS-7 if it can get into a hulldown position, it becomes impervious to enemy armor piercing shells and even APCR and HEAT from the front. The side of the IS-7's turret is also quite tricky to penetrate due to the thickness of the armor and how smooth and sloped the side of the turret is. Only high penetration guns will easily penetrate your side turret armor and only if they aim properly. The smooth surface of the turret is known to bounce even the 422 mm penetration HEAT round of the Jadgpanzer E100.

Mobility: The IS-7 is among the most mobile tier 10 heavy tanks being placed in third place in terms of mobility. It's not as mobile and agile as the British FV215b or the American T110E5, but this tank is reasonably fast in a straight line. However like the German's the Soviets at times like to boast about how fast their tanks can go in-game. The IS-7 is listed to be able to reach a maximum speed of 50 km per hour, however in truth, the tank never reaches that speed even when going down hill. On ideal terrain, the maximum speed at which this tank propels itself is at most 35 km per hour and it takes time to get to that speed. But still this tank can get places quite easily which will surprise you since this tank is a 68 tonne monster.

Disadvantages:

The Gun: The gun on the IS-7, the 130 mm S-70 is a one of a kind weapon. However the gun suffers from numerous draw-backs which can really make you grit your teeth when playing this tank. By now you should have already accustomed yourself with the distinct "Russian accuracy" which plagues most Soviet tanks.

The main poor features of the 130 mm S-70 is the long aim-time of 2.9 seconds which is practically the longest aim-time of all Tier 10 heavy tanks! This means that most of the times you will have to wait for the aim circle to fully shrink before you can be sure you will even hit your target. The sub-par high dispersion of the gun and the low sustained damage out-put is also a major problem for this tank and can severely limit your performance. The dispersion of the gun is 0.4 at 100 meters which makes hitting a target at long range or even a moving target quite a serious challenge. Expect your shells to swerve to the right, left or hit the dirt at long ranges or just flat out miss their target even when in close proximity in extreme cases. To be effective at even hitting the target at times you may be forced to engage in point blank combat which makes your armor weak spots more vulnerable.

Than there's the low sustained damage output of this tank. The gun has a rate of fire of 4.38 rounds per minute and it's per shot damage only averages 460 and can sometimes give you sub-par 350 damage rolls on a bad day. this means that overall, the IS-7 has probably one of the worst damage outputs of all the Tier 10 heavy tanks.

TLDR: The 130 mm S-70 like most Soviet guns, is a blunt club which usually forces you to batter the enemy at close to point-blank range to be effective.

Rather poor penetration on premium ammunition compared to other Tier 10 heavies: The IS-7 you will be surprised to know, does not carry the excellent 340 mm penetration HEAT rounds you enjoyed on the IS-8, instead, the IS-7 gets APCR as its premium ammunition and compared to the other Tier 10 heavy tanks, the IS-7's premium ammo could be a lot better. The average penetration of the IS-7's premium APCR rounds is only 303 mm. This is adequate against most Tier 10 opponents you face but just barely. To insure your APCR rounds work, you will still have to engage in close to mid range combat in order for them to penetrate the target. Be wary around the T110E3 American Tier 10 Tank Destroyer as it is impossible to penetrate frontally aside from it's lower plate.

To summarize, the premium ammunition on the IS-7 is adequate for it's tier but can really limit it's flexibility when dealing with heavily armored targets.

Sluggish hull and turret traverse: The IS-7 may be mobile and fast in a straight line, but it's hull and traverse rate almost rivals that of the E100. The hull traverse is an acceptable 25 degrees per second. You can live with that. However, the turret traverse is simply terrible being a meager 18 degree's per second. This means if you are carouseled or flanked, you will struggle to bring your frontal armor to show your enemy and bring your gun to bear on the target without receiving at least one or two shots in the sides and rear. This tank turns like a slug.

High terrain resistance: This tank will have difficulty climbing hills due to the high terrain resistance. So it will struggle going up hills. or even gentle slopes at times. This means that the IS-7 like the Maus, E100 and other sluggish slow tanks can't get high very easily. HAHAHAHAHA. I'll leave now.

Difficulty in angling: The IS-7 like the IS-3 and the IS-8 preceding it, gets into real hot water when it attempts to angle it's armor. The reason is that, unlike other tanks, where the armor is just sloped in one way downwards, the IS-7 has pre-angled armor which means the engineers who built this tank have already done most of the angling for you. In fact angling your armor is actually the wrong thing to do at times in the Soviet vehicle and here's why.

When you angle the tank, one side of the pike nose armor loses the acute angle at which it was originally oriented and instead becomes much more flat. This drastically decreases your effective armor thickness in that section. The armored plate when placed at a flat angle, the effective armor thickness goes from the whopping 300 plus mm of effective armor to a more weaker 220 plus mm of effective armor. This will allow even Tier 8 tanks to punch your armor. Don' believe me? See for yourself against these 2 armor penetration models of an IS-7 when it confronts a Jadgpanzer E100.

When not angled.

When you angle the tank.

As you can see angling the tank severely decreases the effective armor thickness of the IS-7 and its something to avoid to do. That is also why you should never stay on the incline of a hill. At that kind of incline, your frontal armor becomes very very flat and all the more easy to penetrate. So when your going downhill, don't stay on the hill.

The inability to angle the tank also severely limits your ability to side scrape in your tank as well that is assuming your against competent players who use sniper mode and knows where to aim. Here's the reason why: Rather than trying to explain this to you in all text I will use again the same images as before.

As you can see from this image above, its very difficult to side-scrape effectively in this tank at all due to the configuration of the frontal armor. When your side-scraping against cover and you want to fire on the enemy, you will probably have assumed a position similar to the image above. But as you can seem the there's a problem, what is that Uncle AWACS? Tell us please! Alright than kiddies, if you insist I will. Remember what I said about angling ruining the pre-angled armor of your tank? Well guess what your doing while side-scraping? Your angling your tank of course! Unless you press against your cover to hide that flattened armor plate shown in green in the image above, anyone using sniper mode can and will aim for that weakened frontal armor.

But Uncle AWACS, what about reverse-sidescraping? won't that help me out like it did with my IS-3? Well kiddies, you certainly are smart little nippers, but the problem with reverse-sidescraping is in the IS-7 is well, let me show you.

Unlike in the IS-3 which has a flat rear, the rear of the IS-7 also has areas which are pre-angled! This means if you try to reverse side-scrape in this tank, you still live your enemy a viable target in the flattened corners of your tank's rear. So now you can see why at times you should be careful how you angle your tank!

Propensity for module and crew damage: The IS-7 despite being a heavy tank, has fairly weak modules. Penetrations through the lower glacis almost always injures your tank driver who is seated near that area. Also your ammunition is stored around the front of the tank as well as along the sides underneath the turret. So penetrations in these areas usually leads to ammo rack damage or ammunition explosion destroying your tank. Shots to the rear will often damage your fuel tanks and set your tank on fire as well. Be mindful of that and remember what I said about angling the tank.

Poor gun depression: The gun the depression on the IS-7, like any Soviet tank is atrocious. Thanks to the low silhouette of the IS-7 the gun is unable to depress more than 6 degrees as the turret roof prevents the breech of the gun to move freely downwards. This means it will be extremely difficult to work ridge-lines or fire from hills without exposing most of your tank to the enemy.

Low hit-points pool: The IS-7 has the lowest hit-point pool out of all the Tier 10 heavy tanks at only 1900. This means that this tank cannot take many penetrations and soak up damage like the other heavies can. You will have to ration your hit points carefully.

Now that we know what's good and bad about this tank, Let's move on shall we to performance and how to effectively operate this tank in battle.

Summary: Back than in the old days of World of Tanks PC, there were only 3 Tier 10 tanks available for players to unlock. They were the Steel behemoth the German Maus, the American Alpha Monster, the T30 and than there was the Soviet IS-7. I don't know much about those days because I wasn't into World of Tanks back than. But from what I know, these three tanks dictated the course of Tier 10 battles for some time. Than of course, new tier 10 tanks came, faster, more maneuverable, more heavily armored, and with more firepower. So how does the IS-7 compare today to what it was back than as one of the original "Big Three"?

The IS-7 is a bit a peculiar Tier 10 heavy tank being that it feels slightly average among the other heavy tanks. It is fast, but not very maneuverable. It doesn't have very high alpha damage but it has just enough to put the hurt on its enemies. It doesn't do a lot of damage but it can be very hard to kill sometimes. For me when I first got it, the IS-7 seemed like a unwieldy hard to control mule which always got beat up and refused to listen to me, kinda like how Ash and Pikachu fought each other a lot when they first met.

I just hated the IS-7 for the inability to bounce shots, for the awful gun depression and for that 130 mm gun which made me want to tear the gun out of it's mounting and throw it into a car crusher. But over time, I started to get the hang of it. I still feel that it's a relatively mediocre Tier 10 heavy tank which has not aged well. It required some 100 or so battles before I finally got the hang of it, but when I did, I started to rethink my hatred of this geometric beast. This tank unlike the E100, requires a certain degree more of skill to do well in but is still relatively easy to drive for those used to the play style of the IS-3 and IS-8 provided you got the hang of how to drive those tanks. The main virtue of this tank is in it's angled armor and utilizing it to block shots than clubbing your enemies slowly to death with that blunt club of a gun. This is the principle way to win in this tank, not by high alpha with or DPM wars, but by slowly and brutally clubbing your enemies to death.

Now without further ado, here are a few strategies you can use.

Wiggling: This is key to blocking most shots if you are faced with a head on confrontation with an enemy tank with little hope of escape, wiggle the tank back and forth back and forth constantly until they fire. The wiggling action will make it difficult for the enemies to properly aim for your weakspots and constantly change the angles of your armour. With a bit of luck, the enemy's shell will bounce or hit a track dealing no damage and allow you to retaliate.

Look at these images above of how drastically the effective armour thickness of the tank's frontal armor changes with even a slight angling. Now imagining you wiggling the tank constantly changing the armor's effectiveness. This will constantly disrupt the enemies aiming of your weakspots and increase the chances of either them hitting your track or bouncing a shot.

Hulldown: Whenever you can, try to use the terrain to conceal most of your tank. In ideal conditions, your enemy should only see the frontal turret of your tank. This will fray the enemy's nerves with ricochets off your turret and lets you take time to aim your shots. Wait for the right moment and cause damage.

Peek a BOOM: This tactic you should employ against enemies with high penetration guns who can easily tear through your armour. Wait for an opening while hiding behind cover. Than roll out from cover and fire before retreating back into cover. Hopefully the enemy won't be paying attention to you.

Facehugging: This tactic is favorite of some tanks from other nations, especially tanks with strong turret armour. It's very simple. You get up close and personal with another tank right in his face. The idea is that the enemy will not have the gun depression to fire down into the hull but will have to aim for upper turret weak-spots while you punch holes into his armour. The IS-7 is exceptionally deadly when employing this tactic and enjoys bullying tanks which does not have the penetration to deal with the pike nose armour or the turret cheeks of the IS-7.

When you facehug someone with the IS-7 they are confronted by your large gun mantlet and your strong sloped turret, and they either have the option of firing into your turret cheeks or tiny tiny hatches of your turret or the turret ring or your angled hull. If they have terrible gun elevation or depression they will be stuck pinking away at your mantlet and turret face. To pull off this tactic with a reasonable rate of success, find a tank of equal tier or a medium tank. Press face first against him and find weak-spots to aim at with your gun. When your ready to fire, reverse back and aim for a weak-spot and fire before pressing into them again. After firing your gun, wiggle your turret around slightly while still pressing into the enemy tank and repeat. With a bit of luck, your enemies will struggle in vain to damage you only to bounce and bounce and bounce while you rip them apart completely before letting their dead husk go as you move onto your next target.

Avoid facehugging taller tanks as they can aim down on your hull armour and cause damage. Avoid facehugging tank destroyers of the same tier due to their heavier armament unless they are sufficiently weakened.

The Soviet Corner Angle: This is a tactic which so far, only I use in battle and it kinda breaks one of the rules you should never do when driving pike nosed tanks which is angling your tank. However that's because you shouldn't angle your tank the Western style as that exposes the flattened pike nose to the enemy to hit and believe me so many Soviet drivers make this classical classical mistake. But Uncle AWACS, how do you do the Soviet side angle? Well kiddies, here a picture to show you first.

The Soviet Corner angle is a very easy angle to remember how to do. What you do is to hide your flattened pike nose armor against a rock or some other cover exposing only your heavily angled pike nose side. This will guarantee a higher degree of protection against enemy tanks waiting for you around the corner and will still allow you to fire at enemies. The disadvantages of the Soviet Corner angle is that equal tier TD can easily penetrate your armor still if they aim properly and you can only fire at enemies within the area which you angled your tank and not any tanks located in the opposite direction in which you are angling.

The Soviet Side hug: This tactic works well against Tank destroyers as well as rather tall tanks especially. All you have to do is hug the side of the enemy tank and point your gun at their sides while moving back and forth insuring that they cannot escape your grip. This will allow you to fire upon the enemy but due to the low silhouette of your tank and your strong armor they will have difficulty finding your side armor to shoot at. However this tactic can be countered by the enemy with them backing into a corner and scraping you off their side.

AWACS Equipment:

Large Calibre Tank Rammer: The rammer is a must have piece of equipment for this tank, boosting your rate of fire which is considerably slow.

Enhanced Gun-Laying Drive: Helps you very much by decreasing your 2.9 second aim-time. Remember kids, less time aiming means the less time you have to stand exposed to enemy fire.

Vertical Stabilizer: Another great equipment to help you sure up the deficiencies of your gun being your awful dispersion and aim circle bloom.

I hope you guys found this guide helpful, and hopefully allowed those of you who struggled with this tank to now find it somewhat bearable at the very least. If you feel that there were any parts to this guide which were inadequately explained, or there were some areas I left out. Please let me know and I will try my best to rectify.

Thanks for reading AWACS Tank Guides and I will see you on the battlefield.

IF YOU LIKED THIS TANK GUIDE PLEASE LEAVE AN UPVOTE! IT REALLY HELPS THE WRITER

In the paragraph below the side view from the garage and above the first collision model (the one with lots of colors that you used to explain the side armor): "the side armor is even trickier and complex than the side armor".

In the paragraph below the side view from the garage and above the first collision model (the one with lots of colors that you used to explain the side armor): "the side armor is even trickier and complex than the side armor".

I've said this in other guides but I'll say it again here. I came to this guide to read about the IS-7 in game and learn how to play it/ see it strengths and weaknesses. Almost half of this guide was information not pertaining to the IS-7 in game but in real life. I think that if you condensed it down to just the relevant in game information it would be better.

This is my opinion, some of you may like the short history lesson but there's my two cents.

January 28, 2016- The day Alo8ight moved on in his life from WG and WoTB. You will be missed o7.

March 27, 2017- Dogface takes over as senior producer for WoTB. Fate of Senator_Ratbat unknown.

Block Quote

"The darker the purple, the darker the soul." - Ancient WG proverb. -CrimsonMG

Up up down left right down up left left down <-----my super MLG pro strats 420 no scope headshot hacks (no credit to ksftwe whatsoever)

I've said this in other guides but I'll say it again here. I came to this guide to read about the IS-7 in game and learn how to play it/ see it strengths and weaknesses. Almost half of this guide was information not pertaining to the IS-7 in game but in real life. I think that if you condensed it down to just the relevant in game information it would be better.

This is my opinion, some of you may like the short history lesson but there's my two cents.

Well it's got lots of in-game information. You can just skip the irl part if you want.